Prizefigher - Welterweights, Tuesday June 7th - Semis and Final

Semi Final: Junior Witter UD3 Kevin McIntyre

Both of these fighters won their quarter final comfortably but Witter was able to move up a level to do the same thing again. He went on the offensive from the opening bell and made McIntyre seem pedestrian and occasionally clumsy with his greater speed and power. He was able to land combinations early on and staggered McIntyre mid way through the first round, and shortly afterwards landed a right to the body that floored him.

The second round followed much the same pattern with all the pressure coming from Witter and McIntyre unable to land any significant blows. Whenever he got in close then Witter would hold and spoil making it difficult for any effective work to be done. In the third Witter resorted to staying on the outside and countering as McIntyre pushed forward looking for the knockout he needed, but never looked like getting. Another comfortable win that meant Witter reached the final with only two rounds of hard work behind him.


Semi Final: Yassine el Maachi MD3 Colin Lynes

Though el Maachi may style himself like Naseem Hamed, he's a long way behind on ability. He was unable to match his first round performance against a much better opponent as Lynes was able to block or move away from the one-punch efforts, and return with shots of his own. This time the clash of styles brought a scrappy affair with el Maachi's lunges often ending in the boxers being tangled up and separated by the referee, meaning there was little rhythm in the bout. Lynes was solid in his orthodox style and landed on the counter, as well as being the aggressor more as the fight progressed.

The rounds were close but it seemed to most observers as if Lynes had done enough quality work to take the fight, and though he was two points ahead on one scorecard, he was one point down on the other two, bringing boos from the crowd and surprise from the Sky studio. el Maachi landed few serious punches of note and was lucky to get through to the final, where the underdog role awaits.


Final: Junior Witter - Yassine el Maachi

Given that there were two unorthodox fighters with a tendency to lunge in and not a hint of a guard in sight, this was always going to be an odd fight to watch. It could have been an explosive spectacle but in the end there was more wrestling than boxing. Each fighter hit the canvas at least twice and Witter ended up going headfirst through the ropes and onto the floor ringside, yet not a single knockdown was registered.

After ten seconds Witter rocked el Maachi with a right and followed up with the look of a man ready to end it early, but was then caught himself after 1:20. As both boxers realised the other had the power to hurt them they became a more circumspect and the fight was reduced to each of them taking turns to dive in, fail to hit the target, and then engage in a spot of grappling. In the second round barely a punch was landed worthy of the name. It was the third round that made the difference as el Maachi landed a few solid body shots without anything of great quality coming back.

With a minute left in the fight Witter lunged in, only for el Maachi to move out of the way and encourage him past, at which point he stumbled and fell through the ropes, hitting a cameraman and ending up on the floor ringside. He was straight back up and into the ring uninjured, but it provided a fittingly farcical note to what was as messy a bout as you could ever wish not to see.